Aashish Agarwal CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets The buy side says: “Aashish is highly accessible and responsive.”
Aashish Agarwal captures the crown. The 33-year-old CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets analyst is “not afraid to make bold distinctions between banks with mature assets and their smaller rivals,” observes one portfolio manager. Way back in October 2008, Agarwal began urging clients to buy Mumbai-based Housing Development Finance Corp., at 362.56 rupees, on the strong growth prospects of India’s largest mortgage lender. The stock soared to Rs674.48, a gain of 86 percent that led the sector by 3 percentage points, through May 2011. Agarwal, a 1999 graduate of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India in Hyderabad, worked at S.P. Jain Institute of Management & Research in Mumbai and DSP Merrill Lynch as a financial services analyst before moving to CLSA in May 2007.